Digital Commons Network^™

Applying Neural Networks To Predict Factors Affecting Harmful Algal Blooms For Timely Alerting And Implementing Preventive Measures In Ireland's Marine Ecosystem., Nikolai Potapov

ICT

This study applies neural networks to predict harmful algal blooms (HABs) along the Irish coast, addressing ecological, health, and economic risks. Using primary interviews and secondary data on HAB species like Alexandrium and Karenia mikimotoi, the research incorporated Exploratory Data Analysis and tested three neural models: LSTM, Ensemble Stacking LSTM, and CNN-LSTM. Key factors influencing HABs, such as sea surface temperature and euphotic zone depth, were identified.

Results demonstrate the potential of neural networks to improve HAB prediction and monitoring, despite limitations. Future work aims to enhance model accuracy and integrate them into HAB warning systems.

Data Analysis Of Twitter’S Nasdaq100 Sentiments And Topics As Indicators For News Articles Retrieval: Fine-Tuning Roberta And Rag., Kagan Timur

ICT

This study investigates the combination of sentiment analysis using the VADER lexicon and semantic analysis through Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to identify real-life events, focusing on Twitter datasets. The research shows that while sentiment analysis alone may be insufficient, combining it with semantic analysis improves the process, particularly for identifying relevant news articles and understanding brand perception on social media. The study also fine-tunes the RoBERTa model for question-answering tasks, yielding significant improvements in the SQuAD evaluation metric. The exact match (EM) score rose dramatically from 2.06% to 62%, and the F1 score improved from 9.41% to 65%. A retrieval …

Equity's Role In Defining Property Rights, Samuel L. Bray

Journal Articles

What is the relationship between property and equity? Does equity define property rights, and if so how? This Essay considers the relationship between equity and property. It shows equity will not straightforwardly create new forms of property, but it rather tends to control the exercise of property rights. The Essay also discusses the doctrines that say equity will act (or only act) to protect property rights. It concludes by considering, and resolving, an apparent contradiction about equity's relationship to property: on the one hand, equity is distinctively in personam, while on the other hand, it is distinctively in rem.

Sacred Easements, Patrick E. Reidy, C.S.C.

Journal Articles

In the last forty years, Native American faith communities have struggled to protect their sacred sites using religious liberty law. When confronting threats to sacred lands, Native Americans stridently assert constitutional and statutory free exercise protections against public authorities. But unlike litigation involving non-Indian religious property, cases involving sacred sites seek to protect land that tribal faith communities do not themselves own. Because they lack an explicit ownership interest, Native Americans struggle to protect their sacred sites from desecration and destruction. Courts asked to weigh Indian religious liberty claims against non-Indian property claims always side with the landowner. Since sacred …

Partisan Legal Traditions In The Age Of Camden And Mansfield, Christian R. Burset, T. T. Arvind

Journal Articles

The 18th century is often treated by scholars as a period of juristic consensus. This article argues, in contrast, that the late 18th century saw the emergence of rival ‘Patriot’ and ‘Tory’ legal traditions. Through a detailed study of the jurisprudence of Lords Camden and Mansfield—who were both pillars of the law, as well as political and juristic rivals—we show that they differed systematically in their understanding of the common law, and that those differences had a partisan cast: although they were not crude attempts to instrumentalise law to political ends, their political and jurisprudential commitments influenced each other and …

Breaking The Bamboo Ceiling And De-Bunking The Model Minority Myth, Yun Saksena

Journal Articles: College of Dentistry

Leadership roles must incorporate representation from all involved individuals for the resulting decision-making process to reflect the interests and expertise of a diverse organization. Many resources have rightly focused on developing historically underrepresented racial and ethnic (HURE) leaders. Though numbers of Black and Hispanic dental school deans have increased, more work is needed for these and other HURE groups such as American Indians. Asians are not classified as HURE. As an aggregated group they have robust presence in the dental workforce in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia. The assumption is they are fine, so the group is ignored. …

Andexanet Alfa Versus Pcc Products For Factor Xa Inhibitor Bleeding: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis, C. Michael White, Kimberly Snow Caroti, Youssef Bessada, Adrian V. Hernandez, William L. Baker, Paul P. Dobesh, Heleen Van Haalen, Kirsty Rhodes, Craig I. Coleman

Journal Articles: Pharmacy Practice

Previous meta-analyses assessed andexanet alfa (AA) or prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) products for the treatment of Factor Xa inhibitor (FXaI)-associated major bleeding. However, they did not include recent studies or assess the impact of the risk of bias. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis on the effectiveness of AA versus PCC products for FXaI-associated major bleeding, inclusive of the studies' risk of bias. PubMed and Embase were searched for comparative studies assessing major bleeding in patients using FXaI who received AA or PCC. We used the Methodological Index for NOn-Randomized Studies (MINORS) checklist and one question from the Joanna …

Declaring And Terminating Public Health Emergencies: Performative Utterances That Can Change The World, Christine N. Coughlin, Ana S. Iltis

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Preferences And Feasibility Of Long-Acting Technologies For Treatment Of Hepatitis C Virus In Low- And Middle-Income Countries: A Survey Of Providers And Policymakers, Neil Gupta, Susan Swindells, Kimberly Scarsi, Renae Furl, David L. Thomas, Ethel D. Weld, Joelle Dountio Ofimboudem, Hailemichael Desalegn, Saeed Hamid, Alethse De La Torre Rosas, Angelica E. Miranda, Andrew Owen, Steve Rannard, Lindsey Hiebert, Katherine Sun, John W. Ward

Journal Articles: Infectious Diseases

Long-acting technologies (LATs) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) are under development as a strategy to improve linkage to care, treatment adherence and outcomes. We conducted a survey of HCV treatment prescribers and HCV policymakers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) regarding acceptability and feasibility of HCV LATs. We included one-time intramuscular injection, subdermal implant and transdermal patch as potential LAT options. We surveyed participants regarding optimal health system and patient characteristics, concerns, potential barriers, overall feasibility and preferences for HCV LAT as compared to daily oral medication. Overall, 122 providers and 50 policymakers from 42 LMICs completed the survey. Among …

Introduction To The Symposium On Digital Evidence, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee, Tamar Megiddo

Scholarship@WashULaw

The past few decades have seen radical advances in the availability and use of digital evidence in multiple areas of international law. Witnesses snap cellphone photos of unfolding atrocities and post them online, while others share updates in real time through messaging apps. Immigration officers search cell phones. Private citizens launch open-source online investigations. Investigators scrape social media posts. Digital experts verify authenticity with satellite geolocation. These new types of evidence and digitally facilitated methods and patterns of evidence gathering and analysis are revolutionizing the everyday practice of international law, drawing in an ever-wider circle of actors who can contribute …

Tokyo-Bot: Emulating Industrial Automation, Erebus Oh , '24, Aaron Omadutt , '24, Dzineon Gyaltsen , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Our E90 project was to design, assemble, and program an omni-directional robot that integrated a web camera to intelligently sort (and ideally transfer from one location to another) colored boxes. The purpose of this project was to simulate an industrial workplace setting where similar types of sorting processes occur, and be able to optimize them. Developing a robot with high maneuverability combined with object detection capabilities could prove to be useful in optimizing workflows in warehouses and processing factories where items constantly need to be located and transported. With three group members, each with their own specializations, the project was …

Creating Belonging: Fujianese Migrant Community And Transnational Motherhood, Shu Yi Chen , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

The Riddle Of Race-Based Redistricting, Travis Crum

Scholarship@WashULaw

The Supreme Court has adopted divergent interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause as applied to race and redistricting. Vote dilution doctrine requires mapmakers to consider race to ensure that racial minorities are not packed or cracked. Congress, moreover, has embraced vote dilution doctrine in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. By contrast, racial gerrymandering doctrine triggers strict scrutiny if mapmakers subordinate traditional redistricting principles to race, thereby threatening Section 2’s constitutionality.

To resolve this doctrinal riddle, this Essay examines whether, as originally understood, the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment governed the use of race during redistricting. The Equal Protection Clause …

Reducing Prescription Drug Prices: How Competition Can Make Medications Affordable For Patients - Testimony Of Rachel E. Sachs, Rachel Sachs

Scholarship@WashULaw

In this testimony, I will explain how existing law both keeps branded drug prices high but has also enabled the development of lower-cost generic and biosimilar competition for branded prescription drugs and biological products. This competition can be used to promote access to affordable prescription drugs, benefiting not only patients but also our public payers. However, I will also explain the ways in which existing legislative and regulatory efforts have not always succeeded in promoting competition and will offer a path forward for this Committee to examine reforms that not only encourage the approval of lower-cost products but also ensure …

Washu Expert: Can Trump Bypass Senate Approval Of Controversial Cabinet Nominees?, Andrea Scoseria Katz, Neil Schoenherr

Scholarship@WashULaw

Andrea Katz, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, is an expert on constitutional law, with a focus on presidential power. Here, she discusses how Cabinet members are traditionally appointed and whether the Senate or the Supreme Court could stop Trump from doing an end-around on tradition.

Antitrust, Amazon, And Algorithmic Auditing, Jens Frankenreiter, Abhisek Dash, Abhijnan Chakraborty, Saptarshi Ghosh, Animesh Mukherjee, Stefan Bechtold, Krishna P. Gummadi

Scholarship@WashULaw

In digital markets, antitrust law and special regulations aim to ensure that markets remain competitive despite the dominating role that digital platforms play today in everyone's life. Unlike traditional markets, market participant behavior is easily observable in these markets. We present a series of empirical investigations into the extent to which Amazon engages in practices that are typically described as self-preferencing. We discuss how the computer science tools used in this paper can be used in a regulatory environment that is based on algorithmic auditing and requires regulating digital markets at scale.

Sticky Charters? The Surprisingly Tepid Embrace Of Officer-Protecting Waivers In Delaware, Jens Frankenreiter, Eric L. Talley

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article investigates the reaction to a much-heralded 2022 legal reform in Delaware that permitted a corporation’s charter to exculpate its officers from monetary exposure for breaching their fiduciary duty of care. To isolate reactions to this statutory reform, we make extensive use of generative AI tools to identify and interpret charter amendments that introduce officer-facing waivers. We find a surprisingly tepid rate of uptake among Delaware corporations through the end of the first post-reform year, notwithstanding widespread predictions that corporate entities would quickly storm the exculpation exits once permitted to do so.

Our study makes two contributions to the …

Sex & Startups, Jens Frankenreiter, Talia B. Gillis, Eric L. Talley

Scholarship@WashULaw

Venture capital is widely perceived to have a gender problem. Both founders seeking capital and the investors themselves are overwhelmingly male, fomenting concerns about how—and how fairly—the VC sector distributes its economic gains. Although gender disparities in funding are well documented, we still know little about whether the governance of VC-backed startups similarly manifests gender imbalances. This knowledge gap is critical, since VC investments often carry strings attached, in the form of cash flow and control rights that can vary substantially from deal to deal.

This study unveils a first-of-its-kind dataset that offers detailed insights into the governance of VC-backed …

The Debt Limit, Conor Clarke

Scholarship@WashULaw

Every couple of years, it seems, the debt limit shows up to wreak havoc in American law and public finance. By capping the face value of government securities that can be “outstanding at one time,” the statutory limit regularly threatens the Treasury’s ability to raise the revenue needed to fund required government spending. Brinksmanship over the limit has shut down the government, cost the country billions of dollars, and mired financial markets in uncertainty. And yet, despite its obvious and longstanding importance, the limit remains poorly understood. Commentators attribute its beginnings to 1917 and 1941, before which it is assumed …

Measuring Compliance With The California Consumer Privacy Act Over Space And Time, Jens Frankenreiter, Van Tran, Aarushi Mehrotra, Marshini Chetty, Nick Feamster, Lior Strahilevitz

Scholarship@WashULaw

The widespread sharing of consumers personal information with third parties raises significant privacy concerns. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) mandates that online businesses offer consumers the option to opt out of the sale and sharing of personal information. Our study automatically tracks the presence of the opt-out link longitudinally across multiple states after the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) went into effect. We categorize websites based on whether they are subject to CCPA and investigate cases of potential non-compliance. We find a number of websites that implement the opt-out link early and across all examined states but also find …

Whither Coursework And Nextgen Bar Exam Success?, Robert R. Kuehn

Scholarship@WashULaw

The NextGen bar exam will focus on an expanded range of essential lawyering skills and a reduced set of legal topics. Moving toward less reliance on knowledge of the black letter law concepts of past exams, it seeks to build on the successes of clinical legal education, alternative dispute resolution, and legal writing and analysis programs. With outcomes from the first NextGen exam still two years away, this commentary examines what existing research suggests about law school coursework and likely success on NextGen that might guide students and law schools in preparing for the new exam.

Regulatory Monitoring In The Information Economy, Brenda Dvoskin

Scholarship@WashULaw

The administrative state is inadequately structured to define and implement public values related to the design and operation of digital architectures, systems, and processes. The Reimagining the Governance Stack Project at Georgetown Law is a long-term, full-stack effort to reinvent the administrative state so that it is capable of governing the information economy in accordance with public priorities. This first concept paper focuses on regulatory monitoring capacities. Agencies need new tools to monitor compliance with existing public mandates and understand the information economy in order to develop new and more effective regulation.

Speaking Back To Sexual Privacy Invasions, Brenda Dvoskin

Scholarship@WashULaw

Many big players in the internet ecosystem do not like hosting sexual expression. They often justify these bans as a protection of sexual privacy. For example, Meta states that it removes sexual imagery to prevent the nonconsensual distribution of sexual images. In response, this Article argues that banning digital sexual expression is counterproductive if the aim is to alleviate the harms inflicted by sexual privacy losses.

Contemporary sexual privacy theory, however, lacks analytical tools to explain why nudity bans harm the interests they intend to protect. This Article aims at building those tools. The main contribution is an invitation to …

Provisioning Digital Tools And Systems For Government Use, Brenda Dvoskin, Julie E. Cohen, Paul Ohm, Meg Leta Jones, Smitha Krishna Prasad, Nina-Simone Edwards

Scholarship@WashULaw

This document is part of a larger project aimed at reinventing the administrative state for effective governance of the digital, information-driven economy. It explores how the administrative state can more effectively equip itself with digital tools and systems that align with and improve government’s ability to serve public values. Established approaches to digital provisioning fail in many important respects. Among others, they introduce thorny coordination problems while doing little to ensure design for broader public values; they cause obsolete and/or poorly conceived requirements to cascade through the development process for new tools and systems; they magnify the potential for technology-driven …

Police Diversity Theory, Trevor George Gardner

Scholarship@WashULaw

In light of both the tragic death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis at the hands of Black police officers and the mixed results of studies of Black same-race policing, this Article proposes a conceptual framework by which to better understand the utility of police diversity. The framework maps the relational possibilities among three factors: (i) the Black officer’s approach to same-race policing; (ii) the Black officer’s performance in the context of same-race policing; and (iii) the policing priorities of the Black communities the Black officer is taken to represent.

Responsive to the conceptual framework for police diversity theory, the Article …

Do Patents Drive Investment In Software?, James Hicks

Scholarship@WashULaw

In the wake of a quartet of Supreme Court decisions which disrupted decades of settled law, the doctrine of patentable subject matter is in turmoil. Scholars, commentators, and jurists continue to disagree sharply over which kinds of invention should be patentable. In this debate, no technology has been more controversial than software. Advocates of software patents contend that denying protection would stymie innovation in a vital industry; skeptics argue that patents are a poor fit for software, and that the social costs of patents outweigh any plausible benefits. At the core of this disagreement is a basic problem: the debate …

The Vanishing Appeal?, Stefanie A. Lindquist, Kirk Randazzo

Scholarship@WashULaw

Appellate filings in the United States Courts of Appeals demonstrate a considerable decline since 2006, following an historical trend in increasing caseloads throughout the twentieth century and early parts of the twenty-first. This phenomenon deserves evaluation. In this Article, we demonstrate the trend using data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and advance a number of potential hypotheses that might assist in explaining the trend, including decreasing trial rates, unique case type and circuit variations, trends in pro se litigation, and political explanations. Ultimately, the trend in case filings in the federal appellate courts is likely the product …

Measuring The Impacts Of Experiential Legal Education, Robert R. Kuehn, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Experiential legal education has become an essential component of the law school curriculum, emphasizing "learning by doing" through practical experiences in law clinics, externships, and simulation courses. This pedagogical approach offers law students the critical skills and professional values required for effective and ethical practice. Despite its recognized importance and parallels with other professional disciplines, legal education still requires minimal experiential education compared to other professions. This reluctance likely stems from lingering skepticism by some legal educators about its value, even though many stakeholders, including other educators, students, recent graduates, and other legal professionals, acknowledge its significance.

This Article is …

Contract-Wrapped Property, Danielle D'Onfro

Scholarship@WashULaw

For nearly two centuries, the law has allowed servitudes that “run with” real property while consistently refusing to permit servitudes attached to personal property. That is, owners of land can establish new, specific requirements for the property that bind all future owners—but owners of chattels cannot. In recent decades, however, firms have increasingly begun relying on contract provisions that purport to bind future owners of chattels. These developments began in the context of software licensing, but they have started to migrate to chattels not encumbered by software. Courts encountering these provisions have mostly missed their significance, focusing instead on questions …

Profit, Mission, And Protest At Work, Marion Crain

Scholarship@WashULaw

The classic understanding of capitalism maintains that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. But in the last decade, many firms have announced commitments to various social justice issues, folding them into corporate mission statements, codes of corporate social responsibility, and branding. Firms engaging in so-called “woke capitalism” signal their virtuous support for progressive social causes favored by both their consumer base and their idealistic young workers. This has become particularly important in a tight labor market: by targeting workers’ values, savvy firms increase recruiting yields, enhance productivity, and reduce training costs as retention rates rise, while …